Chapter 385. Labs and Crabs.

  Behind the warehouse was an oversized roll-up door and loading dock. It looked to have been assaulted by the Russians who had partially opened the door before their attack had been repulsed. In the parking lot were a trio of Russian Mobsters hiding behind a pair of vehicles as they kept watch over the back entrance. A few bodies were strewn about the doorway, victims of whoever was inside. I was shocked to see that these bodies weren’t all mobsters. Most of these bodies were dressed in protective gear like they had been working in a lab or something.

  The Russians almost opened fire as we approached, but the man that Yuri sent with us shouted at them to put down their weapons. A crossbow was fired from a factory window, and the bolt hit our escort, piercing his skull. My Health Bloom would be of no help here.

  “Stay back, they’ll fire again soon,” one of the Russians behind the car shouted after our escort was killed. Another of the mobsters stood up and fired a burst from the AK-47 carbine he held. The rounds punched through the window where the crossbow shot had come from, and I wondered if he had scored a hit on whoever, or whatever was inside there.

  I moved away from the trio of mobsters, keeping low and skirting the perimeter of the building. We’d try to find a place to enter that hadn’t seen any action yet. It was unlikely that whoever had taken Sharog brought enough troops to cover the entire massive factory structure. If I had to bet, the group probably consisted of more powerful, but less numerous, foes. Even if they were higher in tier and rank, I doubted that any of them had the same ability that the system had granted me, and they would be unable to regenerate mana on our world.

  The fight with the Russians had been going on for some time, and the hostage takers had been casting spells as recently as a few minutes ago. There was also the problem of creating a portal to send a team to Earth, which was no small feat given my world’s lack of mana. Somehow, I doubted a simple teleportation scroll would work for such a destination.

  Other than a small door on the side of the building, I didn’t spot any other obvious entry points. I wasn’t keen on trying the remaining door, even if it hadn’t shown any signs of combat. Whoever was inside was likely smart enough to keep each point of entry covered in some way. Instead, I’d make my own entrance, and had the crab and my drone attack the stone wall on the far side of the building. It was well away from the other entrances, and there was a spot with no windows granting a view of our efforts.

  The drone used all four arms, each digging into the concrete wall and tearing hunks of it out. My crab minion punched a claw through the opening that drone made, then pulled apart a gap wide enough for us all to enter. The crab scrapped his shell on the way in but was strong enough to force himself through. Once inside, I found myself in a large room with several tables lined up in rows, and protective plastic sheeting separating each table into its own space.

  Atop the tables was what looked like a drug making lab, and I wondered if it was safe for me to be in here without any protective gear. I had to hope my toxin resistance was enough to prevent me from overdosing just by breathing in here. I’d always avoided drugs, and other than what I saw on TV and movies, had no idea what the different kinds of drugs looked like, and the stacks of tightly wrapped packages ready for distribution were a mystery I had no desire to solve.

  At the far end of the room was a steel door that likely led deeper into the factory. My drone took the lead, with the crab behind him. I had Elida join me in the back of the group so we could respond to any unexpected threats. Just before the drone reached the door, it opened suddenly, and a humanoid figure clothed in all black stood there in confusion.

  He looked like a discount ninja with a face covering and a bandolier of daggers across his chest. The man reacted quickly, drawing and throwing a pair of daggers at the drone even as the drone swung his longer, bladed arms at the threat. Hidden armor deflected the drone’s first attack, and to my surprise, the daggers both sunk deep into the drone’s reinforced body.

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  The crab then reached the fight, taking the unknown assailant in both claws. Struggling, but not panicking, the man drew another pair of daggers and jabbed them into the crab’s claws. Just like they had with the drone, the daggers easily pierced the exoskeleton of the crab, and a glow showed that an ability of some type was being used to superheat the weapons. I dropped a Health Bloom over the drone and crab, hopefully counteracting at least some of the damage they’d just taken.

  A creak of metal was heard as the crab’s claws began to tighten their grip. The humanoid in the crab’s grasp redoubled his attacks, stabbing furiously at the armored claws holding him. A moment later, I heard a meaty crunch as the claws sheared completely through the man, dumping both halves of his body onto the concrete floor.

  “Messy, but effective, I said as we left the drug lab and walked past the cut in half mystery man.

  I took a moment to pull back the attacker’s hood and could see that it was a human under the ninja garb, though, as I suspected, he was nobody I recognized. The door led into a long hallway with several other doors opening into what were likely offices of some type. At one one end of the hallway was a metal roll-up door that I figured led to the main factory floor. The other end of the hallway had a similar door, this one partially opened. This was the door that the trio of mobsters outside were covering.

  Thankfully, the industrial building must have used the hallway to move equipment or goods from the factory to the loading docks. That meant that they were wide enough, barely, for the crab to use. He wasn’t going to fit inside any of the smaller office doorways unless the crustacean took the time to pull apart and widen each one. From what I’d seen, the crab was more than capable of that, but whoever we were up against wasn’t likely to stand there and wait until it happened.

  Most of the attacks I’d witnessed came from the upper floor, but I couldn’t leave these rooms down here unchecked. We made our way down the hall, the drone and Elida breaching and clearing each room as we passed. There didn’t appear to be any more attackers other than the one man that had gone to investigate the noise we’d made.

  The smaller offices didn’t hide any new threats, and I could still hear occasional shots ringing out from the Russian’s outside. It was time to clear the main factory floor, and we stacked up behind the roll-up door. There was still power to the building and a button on the wall to open the door.

  With the crab in front, I hit the button, but nothing happened. It could have been the various Fail Weapon’s spells had done their work on the electronic motor to the door, or the rundown factory just hadn’t maintained the system properly. Either way, it wasn’t going to open easily. There was an old-fashioned chain pull on the other side of the door. It was either try the chain pull or just batter it down.

  I went with the latter option, sending the crab in a biological battering ram. The rollup door was a simple, segmented steel affair. It was the type of door designed to separate a space and keep noise and debris inside the factory floor and allow for easy access to move materials around. The door was no match for the huge crab that crashed right through. My team and I followed behind the deadly crustacean, as shouts of surprise sounded from inside the room.

  Any equipment that had once been inside the main factory had long ago been hauled away, leaving a wide-open space that was only broken by steel beams that supported the roof. I caught movement from behind several of the steel beams and felt a sudden pain as a something slammed into my forehead. I’d seen the cartoons and heard people say that they saw stars when they were hit on the head, and I was now able to confirm that it was true. I collapsed as everything whirled around me and the pain finally hit.

  I tried to cast Health Bloom but fumbled the spell. It was like my mana didn’t want to respond to my commands. My vision went dark as blood poured down my face and stung my eyes. I could hear the crab shriek in pain, and several grenades from the drone exploding in the distance. I blinked my eyes and cleared some of the blood from my right one.

  Flat on my back, I could see a figure standing over me that was clad in the same dark ninja outfit that the guy earlier had worn. He held a long dagger in one hand, and a small, pistol grip crossbow in the other. The figure leveled the crossbow at my face, and I could see the bolt on it glow with enchantment as he prepared to fire. I tried to do something, activate an item, or cast a spell, but my mind and body weren’t responding.

  It seemed likely that I was going to meet my end on the dirty floor of an abandoned factory that had been converted into a drug lab and kidnapper’s hideout. Not exactly how I wanted, or expected, to go out.